Serial changed the game for longform journalism podcasts – and by changed the game, we mean basically invented the game.
Suddenly true crime podcasts were all the rage, but the next real phenomenon came out of the This American Life team too: S-Town.
Produced in part by Julie Snyder, the co-creator of Serial, S-Town follows the conversational storytelling tone laid out by its big sister pod to tell the story of a possible murder.
Producer and This American Life reporter Brian Reed was originally contacted years ago by a man named John B. McLemore, who seemed to think a murder had occurred in his small town and a great injustice had been committed. From here the seven part story spirals off into a complex character study of John himself.
John was a self confessed misanthrope and hardcore horologist in the outskirts of rural Alabama. S-Town paints a portrait of John and the isolated town around him, instead of looking into the supposed murder.
In just one week S-Town hit 16 million downloads worldwide, quickly catching up to Serial as the internet’s podcast obsession and even causing some controversy about the ethics of its storytelling.
Unsurprisingly, the podcast is now getting a film adaptation due to its popularity. Participant Media has acquired the rights to S-Town, and This American Life will be a producing partner on the project.
Nothing has been formally announced in terms of talent, but director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) and playwright Samuel Hunter (The Whale) are currently in negotiations to, respectively, direct and write the film.
Brian Reed in the first recording for S-Town. (Photo Sandy Honig)
Given the ethical concerns raised by Reed’s approach to telling the story – which had a very different focus from the one John McLemore seems to have hoped for – a film is likely to spark even more discussion about how the fascinating man at its centre is being portrayed.
It’s the third podcast adaptation to be announced in recent months, after HBO’s Serial docuseries and the Dirty John TV show set to star Eric Bana.
Photo credit: Andrea Morales